Artist Statement

“What if we joined our sorrows? I’m saying, what if that is joy?” – Ross Gay

My art practice is rooted in my desire for personal and social transformation. I make things with my hands – ceramics, embroideries, quilts, sculptures – and I facilitate the production of media to tell the stories of making things collectively, cataloguing these meaningful yet ephemeral processes. I am fixated on making intimate forms of art, monumental.

My role as a cultural producer is to mobilize dominant culture to subvert itself. I am constantly negotiating the complex relationship between my whiteness, class and ability privileges, as they are interconnected with my experiences as a woman and as a survivor of trauma.

The image of a quilting circle is recurrent in my practice. I work collectively, value process as much as the end product, and understand myself as a part of something much greater than any individual person. With a background in fiber arts and in community art, I am drawn to environments like those created by quilting circles, which open space for storytelling, and tether participants to histories of people sitting together and making.

Through my work, I ask people to see what is ignored and ultimately, to see how our stories connect. The experience of seeing and feeling our stories connected becomes a kind of ritual for healing and resistance to oppression. In this way, my work is part of a personal and collective journey towards freedom.